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Wow, it would be nice if we even Got an email.It typically goes like this:We call Fire One and tell them we had a problem.They say: Oh yeah, we fixed that one 3 updates ago, send in all 100 of your modules and we'll upgrade them for the low, low, price of $195 each.

Yeah, Don't get my above rant wrong, Fire One is the best system, really the only system out there for firing large shows. I use all of the others, but they are the only ones out there that can handle large pyromusicals (I.E. > 2000 cues).

It has more then enough juice to fire an entire module (32 cues) at once, and that is a good thing for mine fronts, set peices etc... We need and want that feature.

I'll be back at the magazines tomorrow and want to run a test - I'm thinking if you either forget to assign delays, or assign them twice for a fully scripted show, you will have the same result.

As far as I know, there are no commercially available products out there that will let you test ematches with firepower on (the Capacitive Discharge circuit) powered, so I'm pretty sure it's not a testing issue.

Even though Garden State is a competitor, I feel for those guys, We've had our share of learning curves too.

A am a pryotechnician that works exclusively with computer fired shows. From what I'm hearing on the mailing lists so far, they were using the Fire One controller. We also use them (we have over 100 modules at $795 each). I haven't been involved in the "Loading" of the show into the embedded controller for the past few years, but I was called into action about 3 years ago when we had the same problem with our "semi automatic" shows (press a button for each event). I found there was an additional step when downloading the show from the PC to the firing controller called "Assign Delays" that had to be manually entered when loading. Without that step, all shells for each event fired immediately. I don't know if Fire One ever fixed it because it's now part of our written checklist for loading and we haven't had a problem since, and Fire One is notorious for fixing a problem with one customer, updating the firrmware but not telling the rest of their customer base that there is an update.

If you are using Fire One, you can thank me for the new Line receivers in the new modules, I had to go to the plant and show them the problem.

The point was, I don't have to worry about Chlorine Tankers, I can see the big 1017 Chlorine Placard from a distance and wear the appropriate PPE. At least I know what I'm getting into. I realize they package it appropriately, but I would prefer *NOT* to bet my life on it (or at least make an informed decision).

An anonymous reader writes "“Some people remember Sealab as being a classified program, but it was trying not to be,” says Ben Hellwarth, author of the new book Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor, which aims to “bring some long overdue attention to the marine version of the space program.” In the 1960s, the media largely ignored the efforts of America’s aquanauts, who revolutionized deep-sea diving and paved the way for the underwater construction work being done today on offshore oil platforms. It didn’t help that the public didn’t understand the challenges of saturation diving; in this comical exchange a telephone operator initially refuses to connect a call between President Johnson and Aquanaut Scott Carpenter, (who sounded like a cartoon character, thanks to the helium atmosphere in his pressurized living quarters). But in spite of being remembered as a failure, the final incarnation of Sealab did provide cover for a very successful Cold War spy program."Link to Original Source